Semi-Colons, Stream of Consciousness, and Other Blogging Confessions

What’s one writing rule that you completely ignore?

This is a funny prompt for me. As an English teacher, I’ve built up a reputation as being something of a grammar geek over the years.

One grammatical rule that I never follow when I write is the use of semi-colons. I think I understand how to use them, but I’m not 100% sure. If students ask me about semi-colons, I just tell them: If you’re in doubt, use a period. Don’t mess with the semi-colon.

Beyond punctuation, I’m typically not disciplined enough to really go through a rigorous revision process. Even when I write this blog, it usually consists of me opening the Jetpack app on my iPhone, voice dictating in a stream-of-consciousness style, and getting out whatever I want to say about a particular prompt.

This isn’t to say I never revise at all—I’ll typically go through a revision pass once, maybe twice at most. At that point, I’m usually confident enough to let the post fly.

Proofreading is definitely something I need to do a better job of. Sometimes I’ll go back and look at a post I wrote six months ago and find multiple typos in it. I’ll go ahead and fix them, but if a sentence is just muddy with ambiguous pronouns, I will occasionally overhaul it for clarity’s sake without altering the original intent.

Even so, the grammar geek in me still pops up. I cringe anytime I spot a typo or see a word transcribed incorrectly via voice dictation—though usually, those errors are just baffling rather than funny.

Take the time I was running behind on a first date with OR Manager and tried to voice-text her while driving. What I meant to say was: Hey, I’m running a few minutes behind, I have to stop and use the restroom, but I’ll meet you inside.

What the voice dictation actually transmitted to my first-date date was: Hey, I’m running behind, I’ll meet you in the restroom.

Miraculously, it wasn’t our last date. Apparently, it was so absurdly forward that she just laughed it off instead of blocking my number on the spot.

As for reconciling the teacher versus the blogger, I think the informality just comes with the territory of thinking out loud. I lean into contractions and conversational cadence here—though funistically, even my text messages have reached a point where seeing “gonna” and “wanna” annoys me, forcing me to go back and manually type out “going to” and “want to.”

At the end of the day, perfection isn’t the point of a daily blogging streak anyway. It’s about capturing the thought, fixing the pronoun wreckage, and letting it fly.

Rebuilding a life takes grit, consistency, and a lot of ‘Option C’ thinking. Having crossed the 1,000-day milestone, I’m now charting the territory beyond. The mission remains the same: No glitz. Just the work. New to the blog? Start your journey here to see the blueprint and the ‘Tricorder’ perspective behind the rebuild.

Today’s post is inspired by the WordPress Daily Prompt. While I’ve taken the topic in my own direction for the Road beyond 1,000 Days, you can find more responses to today’s prompt HERE.

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